| Previous research has indicated that an individuals' level of acculturation has a significant impact on mental health, psychosocial functioning, and general well-being (Ghaffarian, 1998). The purpose of conducting the present study was to explore the reliability and validity of an acculturation measure, which was originally developed for Mexican Americans and adapted for Iranian Americans. To date, there are no existing acculturation measures for the Iranian American population. The goal of this study was to create a multidimensional acculturation measure that could be used to assess not only language factors, but also cultural preferences and ethnic identity. In a non-experimental correlational study, acculturation was assessed in a sample of university students from the California State University -- Northridge campus. Results were interpreted using several analyses, including Cronbach's Alpha for a measure of internal consistency, a Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient as a measure of validity, and an exploratory factor analysis. |
